Review Blood and Bite By Laken Cane

Rune and the crew--some of them a little healthier, some of them a little more battered--take on new monsters and unbelievable surprises in Blood and Bite.

While Rune is keeping her promise to Ellis and trying to get her mind fixed, the berserker goes away to take care of some business--mysterious business he doesn't share with Shiv Crew.

What he brings back with him knocks the wind out of Rune and makes her question everything she thought she knew about Strad Matheson.

But the worst is yet to come.

With a mad vampire master she must destroy, a child she must save, and unimaginable screams from a past she has to ignore, Rune has her hands full. But there is always something new and terrible waiting in River County--waiting, it seems, just for her.Because just when she thinks she can't possibly handle one more terrible thing, she discovers a shocking truth about herself, her blood, and her bite.

I live in Ohio and I write urban fantasy. Laken Cane is a new pseudonym for me--I also write erotic paranormal romance for publishers like Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, and Liquid Silver Books under a different pen name.

Shiv Crew is my first book as Laken, and I've never been as satisfied writing as I am with this series. I have a sort of end game planned for the crew, but I have no idea how many books it will take to get there. I'm having too much fun with them to think about ending them!

I do have plans to bring in a new character for one book, just so she can eventually get her own series when (or maybe before) the Rune Alexander series ends. That's the plan.

Besides writing--when I have time to do something other than write or read--I play the heck out of my Playstation 4, my Nintendo 3DS XL, and occasionally I find time to play my Xbox 360 or Wii U. Yes. I have a sickness.

I also drink coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. But I have been trying to dilute all that coffee with some green tea. Decaf green tea. That makes up for all the caffeinated black coffee, right? Yeah. That's what I thought.

What quirks do I have? Hmmm. The word "quirks" makes it sound so cute. I don't swallow pills. I chew them. Yes, I chew them. Tylenol, vitamins, doesn't matter. Even if I crush it and put it in ice cream first, I still chew. I chew ice cream. For some reason, people seem to think that's weird. I don't get it.

I finished the first book within a couple days. I was so excited to get my hands on book 2 that I finished in less than a day. This book had a lot to live up to, in my eyes. I loved the first and was worried, like everyone who has found a new series, that the sequel would fall flat. Fortunately, that did not happen. This book was just as good as the first. Rune gets help for some of her demons and she’s doing better. As soon as she gets back to town, things get bad. A little boy with special powers is kidnapped, the vampires wage a war against Rune and the humans she helps to protect, and the Church of Slayers (COS) wages their own war against Rune and the Others she’s sworn to also protect. There’s a lot of action, lots of gore. It’s a dark as the first book and just when you think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, something happens and the light is ripped away. It leaves you wanting for more. I need to know what happens next. The COS is defeated, once again, but I can feel they aren’t finished yet. This is a bad group and I can’t wait to see what happens next and what other challenges they’ll throw at Rune and her Shiv Crew. There was also a few hints of romance. Nothing really happens in the romance department, but it hints at some good things to come. All in all, I really can’t wait to see where the author goes with this series! I can’t wait to read the third book, if it’s as good as the first two (of which I have no doubt now), I’ll end up loving it and recommending it to anyone who will listen!